


Hunting Rituals

by Lenny9987



Series: Lenny's Imagine Claire and Jamie Prompts [70]
Category: Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22565389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenny9987/pseuds/Lenny9987
Summary: Prompt: And then there were none
Series: Lenny's Imagine Claire and Jamie Prompts [70]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/421240
Comments: 9
Kudos: 73





	Hunting Rituals

The first hunting trips Jamie made with Brianna, he was careful about asking her questions that would put her in mind of the time and life she’d left behind. He wanted her to feel she could speak freely with him but he also didn’t quite know how to build her trust in him. He didn’t want her to be upset about the decisions that had led her to a life in a different century from all she’d known. 

So, it was sometime after Jemmy was born and was old enough for her to leave him overnight for a day or two before Jamie really began to let her see his curiosity. She laughed as she explained modern mechanics and technologies in a way that was beyond Claire’s abilities (if it wasn’t medical, she had mostly just cared whether or not it worked rather than how). But Brianna had a true appreciation for the engineering of twentieth century innovations and she had inherited Jamie’s ability to tell a story. 

It was midwinter and they were out checking their snare lines, muskets ready should they encounter deer or any other large animal but for the most part, the forest was quiet and calm — a sure sign a storm was due soon, so they moved quickly. 

Jamie told Brianna the story of how he’d thrown his back out while off on his own that first winter he and Claire had been on the Ridge. How he might have died if Claire hadn’t stubbornly gone looking for him and miraculously found him in time to build a temporary shelter. 

“There was naught to do but wait out the storm,” he explained. “I tried to get her to go back to the cabin and come for me when it was through, but she wouldna go.”

Brianna chuckled. “You know, she always talks about how stubborn the Frasers are but she’s just as bad as any of us and she’s only a Fraser by marriage.”

“Aye,” Jamie smiled. “She was born to be a Fraser then.”

“And how long were you there before your back was better and the storm cleared?”

“No more’n a night and into the next morning. It was too loud and cold for sleeping — wouldna let us sleep. Too afraid if we did we wouldna be waking again.”

“Hypothermia,” Brianna nodded. “It’s what she always said I’d die of when I wanted to go play outside in the snow without a hat.” 

“Tha’s the one.”

Brianna frowned. “So how’d you two keep yourselves awake so long?... Or do I not want to know?” she added when she realized what she might do with Roger in a similar situation. Her face reddened and she noticed that Jamie’s was a little pink too, and not just from the cold. 

“As a matter of fact, she told me a story. Said it was one she and Frank would tell you near Christmas. ‘Bout a nasty old man who had more money than friends and was visited by spirits in the night.”

“ _ A Christmas Carol _ ,” Brianna confirmed, smiling sadly. “Yeah, she and Daddy read it to me every year till they had it pretty much memorized.”

“It certainly wasna her words tellin’ the story, except for a few parts she couldna recall quite right. Willna be written for half a century yet, she said.”

“That’s one of the things I miss — the books. There are so many books that haven’t been written yet that you’d love,” Brianna told him, thinking about the small but growing library he had back at the house. 

“There arena many things from the future you and yer mam tell me of that I would care to see… but those… I dinna think I should mind readin’ the books so much,” he agreed. 

“ _ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times _ ,” Brianna began, reciting from memory as much as she could before delving into the story itself—pausing to explain the historical events that made up the backdrop, though they were decades away from their present.

From that point, when they would go hunting — after they successfully stalked and made their kills — Brianna would recount what she could of different novels she’d read. The books read (and analyzed) in school were the ones she remembered best, though she knew she was making a horrible mess of the prose itself in most cases. The practice made the work of skinning and butchering go faster and was a way of remembering her own past that didn’t hurt as much as other memories. 

It was something between just the two of them — she saved the stories for when they were on their own. After Brianna and Roger went through the circle on Okrakoke with the children, Jamie still said nothing of their custom to Claire. 

The first time Jamie and Brianna went hunting again after the Mackenzies’ joyous return to the Ridge, Jem joined them. He’d grown significantly in the few years they’d been gone — and had endured more than he should have. 

The three of them fell into an easy silence, broken only when Jamie or Brianna had a quiet word of advice for Jem — raise the barrel a little higher, open that eye, squeeze when ye breathe out. 

Soon, they had several large turkeys strung together by their feet and they’d chanced upon a wild boar that Jamie had taken quickly with a single shot. 

The birds could wait till they reached the Ridge — needed to for plucking as there was too great a need for the feathers. The boar, however, needed a degree of butchering in order for them to comfortably carry the meat — at least half for salting and smoking and the rest for the following day’s dinner. 

“There once was an old man taking a train to the coast,” Brianna began when Jamie took his knife out and Jem began to pale. Jem turned his attention to his mother while Jamie slit the very-recently-dead animal’s throat. “He’d been invited to an island by a friend of a friend. There were others on that train, all invited to the same island — some for employment, like the young woman, Vera Claythorne, who’d been a tutor or nanny but was now going to be a secretary,” Brianna continued. 

Jamie strung the board up from a nearby branch to let gravity help drain the carcass as he used his knife to slice the beast’s hide. Jem chimed in, “I think she was a governess, Mam.” 

“Ye ken this story then?” Jamie asked. 

Jem smiled as he turned to his grandfather, no longer looking pale or queasy. 

“Aye,” Jem said. “It’s one of Mam’s favorites. She had a copy on the shelf she said came from her old house in Boston. Ye’ll never guess who the murderer is,” he grinned.

“Murderer? What sort of book is it?”

“Murder mysteries are going to be  _ very _ popular someday,” Brianna informed him with a smile, “and this one is one of the best and it’s  _ by _ one of the best — Agatha Christie.”

“A woman writin’ of murderers,” Jamie muttered shaking his head with disbelief.

“Yes, now keep quiet and let me get back to it. There are ten characters at the start and I have to make sure I don’t skip any of them,” Brianna scolded. “Let’s see, I’ve mentioned the old judge, Wargrave, and Vera the governess turned secretary. Then there’s the doctor, Armstrong—”

“He’s a surgeon like Grannie, but no as good,” Jem declared. 

“And then there’s—”

“And then there were none!” Jem interrupted, laughing at his joke. 

Jamie looked to Brianna, brow furrowed in confusion. 

“If you’re going to interrupt the story when I’ve barely started, we’re not going to bring you with us anymore,” Brianna warned. 

Jem pressed his lips together and made a motion, drawing his fingers across his lips. 

“Good. So, Wargrave, Vera, Armstrong…” she resumed, listing off characters and tapping her fingers as she did so. 

Jamie settled into the work of removing the meat from the boar’s carcass, smiling as he listened to Brianna recount the story with help from Jem. 

It was a joy to have them back.


End file.
